SiriusXM’s Jose Mangin recently chatted with Lamb of God’s Chris Adler on Liquid Metal’s 666-LIVE call-in show. Read what the drummer has to say about being a dad, his new restaurant, new Lamb of God material, and much more below (which was transcribed by Josh “Shitkill” Musto), and let us know what you think in the comments!

Jose Mangin: So what’s up dude? Happy New Year! I see a lot of cool family pics over the holidays, everybody’s doing well in the Adler household?Chris Adler: Yeah man, things are good. I mean we’re definitely looking forward to maybe a little bit better of a year this year than last year, or maybe the couple past years have been for the band. But yeah, the family is good and things are moving along. We’re working on some new music, we really couldn’t be happier about having the opportunity to keep doing this.Mangin: Hey, I wanted to ask you, how old is your daughter now, Chris?Adler: She’s six, man. She was in kindergarten last year, she’s in first grade this year and it’s my favorite thing every day. People probably don’t think of us as normal people, but I’m up at 7 A.M. every day making breakfast. I give her a ride to school every day so she doesn’t have to ride the bus and walk her to her classroom. And we’re doing piano lessons and all that good stuff. So I’m definitely happy to be Mr. Mom when I’m here.Mangin: Oh, that’s so cool. Is she getting into metal at all? Are you starting to play her some like Venom records or something?Adler: She calls it “boy music,” but recently she has. She’s really into this Swedish band called Mustasch that I like to listen to a lot, kinda hard-rock band.Mangin: Yeah, it’s kind of a stoner-rock band right?Adler: Yeah, it’s kinda like that. And another kind of, I don’t know what you wanna call it but Cloudkicker, she really loves that stuff as well.Mangin: Alright, look at that dude! You gotta get her into some of the guttural stuff too, man.Adler: Yeah, you know she’s like every other six-year-old girl, she’s singing ‘Frozen’ all day long, but when I’m home she does do it with the death metal voice, so that’s pretty cool.Mangin: Yeah dude, there are signs of an awesome household right there, Mr. Adler!Adler: It’s pretty good. We’ve got two drum kits sitting next to each other and she rocks out with me.Mangin: Yeah I was gonna ask, you’re giving her piano lessons but what about her drum skills? You’re not gonna put her behind the kid, or you’re starting to?Adler: Yeah Mapex, the company that I work with for drums is really cool and gave her a tiny little cocktail kit that she’s able to sit at and play everything, you know she can reach the bass drum, hi-hat, and everything. So she’s got a couple different beats and I follow along and we take turns kinda riffing back and forth on little fills and stuff like that. It’s really the first time that I’ve really sat around like in a drum circle. I’ve always been kinda intimidated or i just wanted to play with a guitar player. I never really thought of drums as kind of a solo instrument but I can actually jam with her man, it’s really cool. I just got a drum kit for her school music department, brought that into school there. I go in to the kindergarten and play for the kids, and played along to sesame street music and all that kinda stuff. I went to career day and talked about, you know like how you can follow anything to want to do, you know math can be boring and anything can not be as fun, so just find something fun that you like to do and fall in love with it and keep trying and you’ll get there.

Mangin: You my friend, Chris Adler, recently opened up an awesome restaurant with a partner called the Big Whisky Grill–is it McCormack’s Whisky Grill or Big Whisky Grill?Adler: Is it the Big Whisky Grill–there is a McCormack’s and it’s the same guy, he’s got a small whiskey spot in a place called The Fan here in Richmond–and we’ve opened one at the near West end. It’s a huge place, capacity of almost 700, and I think it’s the second biggest whiskey bar in the country. The food is just fantastic and we hired the No. 1 chef in Richmond for the past years running to come over there. We opened towards the end of November, we just kinda finalized the menu, trying a bunch of different stuff and we’re all real happy with what’s going on there. The bar is doing real well and people are just starting to figure out that we’ve got the great food too, so it’s going good, man.Mangin: Wow, well why did you decide to do this restaurant?Adler: Well to be honest, what happened was I think when this whole deal went down with Randy

being potentially locked up for ten years, pretty much everybody in the band started running for plan B, like, “Oh my god, what are we gonna do, how are we gonna do this?” I don’t think anybody had any intention of continuing the band without Randy, there’s no way we were gonna as a group replace him and try to continue on. If Randy had decided he wants to go sell vacuum cleaners or something like that then maybe we would talk about replacing him–but if he’s hung up on this thing that we were all involved in, there’s no way we were gonna continue. So we were looking at basically the end of our career. And so I think people put a lot of time and effort into what they might to next, you know there’s not a retirement plan in rock n’ roll, and people think we’re all millionaires and we’re not. You just kinda take it as you can and try to make ends meet and everything that I had saved I decided to go in with a real good buddy of mine on making a place kinda special. What’s special about it for me other than the 900 different whiskies that we have, is that my wife Julie. She’s had a lot of different allergy problems and a lot of kids today have allergy problems, and her sister actually has two kids that have such bad allergies that as a family they can’t even go out to eat–they have to stay in and make all this kinda crazy stuff. Long story short, in this place because it’s so big, we’re able to have a secondary kitchen with secondary utensils, plates, chefs, the whole deal, and offer an allergy menu, so that families with those kinds of issues can come out without worrying about cross-contamination. So not only is it gluten-free and stuff like that, but its also nut, soy, eggs, most of the food based allergies that people run into these days. I tried to make a spot where people could feel like their safe, because I’ve been out with Julie so many times where you get a salad and she’s got a walnut vinaigrette dressing on it, and next thing you know I’m running to the hospital with my wife. It’s crazy. So those kinds of things might not affect everybody, but from the people that know the effects, it’s a really big deal, so I wanted to add that aspect to it.

Mangin:I was gonna ask you just to conclude a Lamb of God update–do you guys have some song ideas written, have you guys had the band meeting, do you guys have a plan for 2015?Adler: We do, we’ve got a couple big things lined up already, both commitments that we had kinda made before we got into the writing and recording schedule. So we’re heading to Australia in just a little bit in February for Soundwave festival, which we’re excited to get back on stage. Then I guess we’re doing a couple festivals in June where we may, I’m not sure–we haven’t had that band meeting–but we may be playing some new material on those things, but those things are kind of 45 minutes greatest hits show, so nobody really wants to hear anything new, they want to kill each other to “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For” and “Black Label,” so we’ll figure it out when we get there. But definitely the plan is by the end of the year is to have a new album out and do a very full extensive U.S. run.Mangin: Wow, and how about song ideas? How are they fleshing out Chris?Adler: It’s great. I guess the thing that I was overwhelmed with was the idea of us taking the year off of 2014 and then have us come together basically around now and start putting things together. But as usual, everybody is a little antsy and wanting to jam and it wasn’t like, “Oh hey, Willie has an idea and Mark has this kinda cool solo thing he wants to add on top of it”–both of these guys came in with about fifty different song ideas. So what’s been great is just going through all these ideas which are all really good and being able to say okay we have this much material, let’s pick the top 10 or top 15 or 20, and just keep working on that. Then they get upset because number 42 had their favorite part–so okay, grab that favorite part from 42 and let’s make song 6 way better. So it’s been that kind of a process as we go along. Also I’ve noticed the guys are really writing the kind of stuff that I find myself kind of…I don’t know…I don’t want to say singing along, because there’s no vocals on them yet, but the melodies of the ideas really stick with me, which is one of the things that if I were to ever complain about more of the recent stuff that I’ve been buying music-wise–it’s great while I’m listening to it, I’m impressed, it’s over my head, it blows me away, but when I’m done with it I couldn’t tell you how it goes. Our goal is you know, that the guys that’ll write the songs that stick with you are the guys that are gonna stick around. So I’m really impressed with what these guys have been doing on a songwriting level, stepping it up and writing stuff that kinda sticks with you.

Since Slipknot ousted drummer Joey Jordison, the band has not revealed the identity of their new drummer. A rumor has been going around that it is Lamb of God’s Chris Adler (pictured left), based on the drumming heard on Slipknot’s new song “The Negative One.”

Adler recently spoke to ABC News Radio saying, “Right now I think silence is golden. Right now I don’t think those guys need me, or need me talking about it.”

He continued, “You know, I listened to it and I thought it sounded a little bit like me, too. At the moment, I just don’t recall doing it.”

UPDATE: On August 14, Chris Adler posted the following clarification to his above statements on his official Facebook page: “I’ve received even more questions about my involvement with Slipknot since the ABC interview I did recently. The interview was originally about my new whiskey bar, but of course took a turn into the gossip of the day. As I told her, I’ve had and have nothing to do with it. I’m flattered with the association and comparisons, but I have no involvement in their record.”

]]>http://www.revolvermag.com/news/lamb-of-gods-chris-adler-addresses-rumors-that-hes-played-on-slipknots-the-negative-one.html/feed35Andrew Hulme of West of Hell Lists the Top Five Most Influential Drummershttp://www.revolvermag.com/lists-2/andrew-hulme-of-west-of-hell-picks-the-top-five-most-influential-drummers.html
http://www.revolvermag.com/lists-2/andrew-hulme-of-west-of-hell-picks-the-top-five-most-influential-drummers.html#commentsMon, 29 Oct 2012 15:00:56 +0000http://www.revolvermag.com/?p=37940Earlier this year, pyromaniacal metal outfit West of Hell released their debut full-length, Spiral Empire. A fiery personality behind the kit, drummer Andrew Hulme offers here his picks for the five drummers who have influenced him the most.

1. Vinnie Paul, Pantera “Cowboys from Hell was the first metal album I bought when I was 12. Vinnie Paul was the first metal drummer that had a big impact on me.”

2. Nick Menza, Megadeth “I pretty much learned how to play drums to Rust in Peace. At that point I had never taken lessons. That album and Nick Menza were my drum teacher.”

3. Gene Hoglan, Death “I was about 19 when I first heard Gene. I couldn’t get over the complexity of Symbolic and Individual Thought Patterns. It was the heaviest thing I’d heard at that point. It took me years to wrap my head around what Gene was doing on those albums.”

4. Lars Ulrich, Metallica “As much as people slag on the guy for his playing, it’s the simplicity of his style that I like. It’s mostly his slow groove beats that’ve rubbed off on me.”

5. Chris Adler, Lamb of God “Ashes of the Wake was another massively inspiring album. But mainly it was the fact that I learned that he was around 20 when he first got real serious about drumming. I was about the same age when I got heavy into playing. It reassured me that I wasn’t too old to start playing at a high level.”

]]>http://www.revolvermag.com/lists-2/andrew-hulme-of-west-of-hell-picks-the-top-five-most-influential-drummers.html/feed1Exclusive Interview: Lamb of God Drummer Chris Adler on Randy Blythe and the Upcoming Tourhttp://www.revolvermag.com/news/exclusive-interview-lamb-of-gods-chris-adler-on-randy-blythe-and-the-upcoming-tour.html
http://www.revolvermag.com/news/exclusive-interview-lamb-of-gods-chris-adler-on-randy-blythe-and-the-upcoming-tour.html#commentsTue, 18 Sep 2012 15:54:39 +0000http://www.revolvermag.com/?p=37431If 2012 is the year that the world ends as predicted by the Mayan calendar, Lamb of God probably wouldn’t be surprised. Their 2012 has been a nonstop roller coaster of supreme highs and horrifying lows. In January, the band released Resolution, their sixth full-length, which garnered them praise from all corners of the metal world and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts. Then, in June, frontman Randy Blythe was arrested in Prague for alleged manslaughter due to the death of fan, who allegedly sustained ultimately fatal injuries at Blythe’s hands at a 2010 concert. Thus began a much-publicized legal battle in which the Lamb of God vocalist spent a month in a Czech prison, his bail repeatedly remanded by the case’s prosecutor, until his release in early August. During this time, the band was forced to cancel their high-profile US tour with Dethklok and Gojira.

Now, Lamb of God are back in the saddle, having recently played Slipknot’s Knotfest and preparing for a national trek with Hatebreed, In Flames, and Sylosis. When we speak to drummer Chris Adler, he is relaxed and articulate, obviously seasoned in the discussion of his band’s recent legal woes. He calls us from home, where he’s spent the summer with his daughter. “I’m a lucky man,” he says.

REVOLVER How are you feeling having your lead singer back safe and sound?Chris Adler It’s good! It was a real scary situation, and it still is. Randy has to return to stand trial in January. But the process went from being very, very scary, when we first arrived in Prague, to a lot of frustration as we tried to jump through all the hoops put in front of us to get him home and try and make sense of the situation. By the time he did come home, we were very irritated trying to help, because we did everything we could and nothing was budging. It was most definitely a huge relief to meet him at the airport the other night, and just a few weeks ago we played the Knotfest in Iowa and Wisconsin, and it was great to get onstage and let that anger out. We would never market this as a comeback or anything, but there was a special energy among the crowd. They were really happy that we were there to do what we do.

How did it feel landing in Prague and being confronted with a situation like this as you step off the plane?
It was surreal. Let me just walk you through what had happened. We had just played in Norway, and we’d been out on tour for about three weeks, for six days a week, with one day off. This was our day off. So after three flights from Norway to Prague, we land at about 7 or 8 o’clock, and the plan is to go from the airport to the hotel, maybe have some dinner, lick our wounds from the road rash and be ready for the show the next day. We finally get off the plane and get out onto the jetway, and there are a couple of plain-clothes airport officers pulling people aside to check their passports. This isn’t unusual in Europe—people checking passports, visas, it happens all the time. And I get pulled aside and still don’t think anything of it, but I realize pretty quickly that it’s just our band and crew that are being pulled aside. I begin worrying that something has happened with someone’s family while we’ve been in the air, but I wasn’t thinking we were in trouble—or at most, that somebody had forgotten about something in their suitcase that they shouldn’t bring on a plane, but that was the worst-case scenario in my mind. So they hold us there, and once they have 12 of us there, they very cordially corral us into this room, where they have this line of guys who look like they’re dressed for the apocalypse. They’ve got black ski-masks on, all of them look like they could be linebackers for the NFL, they’re wearing all-black bullet-proof gear, they’ve got knives and guns strapped everywhere. They have enormous machine guns, not semi-automatic weapons but end-of-the-world type guns. The minute we see this, it’s like, Holy fuck, what is going on here?

So finally they say they’re investigating a homicide. So even then, it doesn’t occur to me that we have anything to do with it. I assume that something has happened in the five and a half weeks we’ve been on the road, that someone got hurt backstage, maybe somebody that we know got trampled or pushed too hard. We just got done playing to 110,000 people—things like that happened. But then they hand us a piece of paper, written in broken English, that explains that they’re investigating a homicide that happened at a show two years ago, that it was us, and a kid had died at a show. We’d never been made aware of it. So immediately, we’re all in a state of shock that a kid has died at our show, which is the exact opposite of what we want—we do this because we love it, we have a good time, we would never want anyone to get hurt at our show. So we all felt kind of terrible about that. And then they tell us that they’re charging us with this, specifically Randy. So then there’s these two emotions—the first is, How can you take Randy away from us? But the second is this sadness that a kid had died. So I think everyone was just in a surreal state for the next couple of days of wondering what was going on, how we got into this situation, and how were we going to get out of it. It was a terrible experience, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, and I never want to go through it again.

That sounds nightmarish.
It was—especially for Randy, who was obviously there longer than us. But it was also frustrating for us because for all of the hoops we had to jump through, nothing moved forward. There’s certain expectations that you have, and we came away with a pretty good understanding that this is not the way things work all around the world. We’ve seen enough of the world, but it was still kind of a shock.

At least now you’re a scholar of the Czech legal system.
I’d like to think I am, but it’s still a huge mystery to me! After a while, it was just, Randy’s getting out Monday, now it’s Wednesday, now it’s Monday… And then it got to the point where we had to cancel the Dethklok/Gojira tour, because those bands had to get on with their lives and promoters were getting scared about selling tickets to see a band whose lead singer is in jail in another country. But we’re doing our best to respect their system, and I know that they have legit questions, and Randy is 100 percent interested in going back and telling his side of the story and clearing his name and meeting with the family. He really wants to see this through.

There was a lot of public support in the press and the metal scene, but did you take any flack for cancelling that tour?
Besides the odd ticket holder who had a problem with getting their refund from wherever they’d bought the tickets, not really. Those bands are our friends, and they really waited ’til the very last minute to cancel that tour, but they had promoters to deal with who didn’t want to sell tickets to a show where the headliner might not show up. It was disappointing for us because we were paying people to set up the show, talking about production costs with Dethklok about the video screens…so it was a disappointment for everyone. Us because we wanted to play this tour, our families because this is our job–this is how we keep the lights on, our crew who also have families, everyone. It has a trickle-down effect.

You’re about to embark on this tour with Hatebreed and In Flames. Is everything set to go on that?
Definitely. We’re already talking about doing some new things, bringing out some new tunes. We’re really excited to get out there—the energy we had at the Knotfests was really special. One of the silver linings of this situation, for me, was that when something like this happens, you realize how fragile this all is makes you realize how lucky you are to get to do it. I’m super-excited to tour with Sylosis—one of the my favorite bands right now, who we’ve traveled the world with. It’s going to be great.

You guys have grown up with In Flames and Hatebreed. Is it still a fun time touring with them, or are you guys over that? Is backstage still a party, or is it all just, “I have to get to bed, I have blisters you wouldn’t believe”?
Well, everyone’s a little bit older, but in general it’s still very much a party atmosphere. The reason we tour all the time together is because we really do enjoy each others’ company. There’s a poker game every night, and we sit around talking theory and bands. I’m usually on the bus jamming on some music with these guys. So we might not go as late these days, but we’re still holding onto the lifestyle.

Are there any other bands like Sylosis—more underground bands—you’d like to play with?
I’m a big fan of Decapitated—love those guys, classic death metal. And I’m a big fan of Periphery, who’re pretty neat. And most recently, again, I’ve been listening to the new Sylosis record. I can’t stop listening to it. Every morning, that and Edge of the Earth are my way of starting the day.

Resolution was a huge album when it came out earlier this year. Why do you think Lamb of God has remained prominent while some of these other bands have fallen by the wayside?
It’s hard to say. There are so many steps we could’ve taken that could’ve meant the end for us, or for any of these other bands. It’s not entirely a surprise. We’re lucky to continue to do this. Getting on best-of lists, putting out Billboard Top Ten records, getting Grammy nominations, that stuff is absolutely insane. I just don’t know where half of it comes from, because that was never something we tried to do. We just love to make music, we respect each other, we enjoy working with each other. So I think one of the missteps a lot of guys make, and it’s difficult to deal with when you’ve been in a band for 17 years, is keeping a consistent lineup. It’s easy to get fed up with each other, or the cycle—having to head out on the road, or be creative at a certain time. Or it’s the friendships. Through a lot of this, you’re in a metal tube of some kind traveling the world with each other 24/7 for years at a time. We’ve had that. But we really respect each other, and realize that together we are capable of so much more than any one of us individually.

]]>http://www.revolvermag.com/news/exclusive-interview-lamb-of-gods-chris-adler-on-randy-blythe-and-the-upcoming-tour.html/feed1New Music Education Service–Featuring Leading Hard Rock/Metal Musicians–Launches on January 9http://www.revolvermag.com/news/new-music-education-service-featuring-leading-hard-rockmetal-musicians-launches-on-january-9.html
http://www.revolvermag.com/news/new-music-education-service-featuring-leading-hard-rockmetal-musicians-launches-on-january-9.html#commentsThu, 05 Jan 2012 19:42:44 +0000http://www.revolvermag.com/?p=30971BandHappy, a new live online and in-person music education service, featuring a host of hard-rock and metal musicians, will launch on January 9. Founded by Periphery drummer Matt Halpern, the service offers access to one-on-one lessons–in person or online–with the teacher of your choice.

Some of the teachers already signed up include Lamb of God’s Chris and Willie Adler, Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman, Tosin Abasi from Animals as Leaders, as well as a host of other top professionals.

Registration privileges launched earlier today, while teachers can also still apply. You can view a tutorial video for how to get started as a student here, and as a teacher by clicking here.